Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Electronic Waste - A threat to environment

Electronic
waste or e-waste is discarded electronic materials like mobile phones,
computers, television sets which are
supposed to be recycled or reused. As technology advances and new electronic
gadgets are introduced every often, the amount of discarded electronic equipments
also increases. These materials are highly dangerous and could make serious
impact on environment. Electronic wastage contain hazardous components like lead,
beryllium, cadmium etc. Proper disposal
or recycling of these components are inevitable to keep environment free from
pollution.

Coming
to India, growing economy has made possible for everyone to have a mobile phone
or computer. India is a potential market for electronic manufacturers. They
introduce new models of their electronic products and people do not hesitate to
try it. This habit creates a tendency to throw away the old gadget they were
using and thus makes the mountain of e-waste. Just like other wastage, electronic
waste also is not properly treated in India. Unscientific processing of e-waste
releases toxic elements and it affects the person who handles it and the environment.
There are many cancer causing components in laptops, circuit boards etc.

Developed
countries found a solution to get rid of e-waste. They send it to countries
like India and China where environmental care is sleeping. It is said that
around 80% of e-waste in the United States is exported to third world countries
in Asia and Africa. Lack of proper provisions to handle these e-wastage creates
deep effects in the environment in these countries. In India, there are many
villages where electronic garbage are collected for separating copper and gold.
They use cyanide to separate gold from circuit board. They burn tangled wire to
separate copper from it. People who are dealing with these methods for long
time are in the risk of diseases like cancer. Millions of people in rural areas
are going through many health related disturbances due to continuous interaction
with hazardous chemicals. There are many safe methods to dismantle
e-waste.What the authorities should do
is to establish proper system for recycling or reusing e-waste and give
training to those millions of people who are involved in it.

E-waste Management
- Components

The
first step in e-waste management is to collecting and sorting e-waste and
transporting it to the location where it will be treated. E-waste should be
sorted according to the hazardous element it produces while processing.

Once
it is sorted and reached the location recycling can be started. This process
includes dismantling, identifying valuable components and recovering them. The
recovered components can be exported to use it for manufacturing. The
stakeholders of e-waste management are manufactures, recyclers , policy makers
and users. It helps reduce environmental issues caused by e-waste dumping too.

Considering
the increased tendency to produce more e-waste in India, the government has
taken initiative to handle it in a proper manner. In collaboration with
countries who have successfully established e-waste management plants, India is
set toget rid of e-waste and what else
we can gift to mother nature.